Being a Mom Who Suffers From Migraines

A Little Background On My History With Migraines

Every day is a struggle for me as someone who suffers from chronic migraines. I’ve been suffering from them ever since I was 15 years old and they only seem to be getting worse as I get older. Honestly, even sitting down to write this post was a struggle for me and I had to take my medicine just to great rid of a headache so I could get this done.

I’ve seen so many neurologists since I started getting my headaches and I’ve tried almost all of the medications on the market that are used to treat migraines. What’s crazy to me is most medicines used to treat migraines are actually medications for other things like epilepsy, depression, & blood pressure. Those are what I took for many, many years, daily, in hopes of preventing headaches. Unfortunately for me, many of them didn’t work for longer than 6 months. More recently, new drugs have come out specifically designed to treat migraines. I’ve tried a few of these and these too haven’t been super successful for me either.

The only real type of drug that has worked for me are triptans which are used to stop of a headache that has already begun. The problem for me is these drugs can’t be taken daily or you’ll suffer from rebound headaches.

There are so many different options for headache/migraine sufferers out there, but I haven’t found anything that has really worked for me in the last 15+ years.

Every doctor has asked me if I know what things trigger my headaches. Is it certain food, light, sounds, smells? Honestly, I wish I knew so I could attempt to stop these migraines from coming on, but I don’t. Sometimes when I eat chocolate I get a headache & sometimes I don’t. Sometimes when I eat aged cheese I get a headache & sometimes I don’t. Nothing is ever consistent enough for me to pinpoint & prevent these migraines attacks from coming on.

Migraines & Motherhood

Before becoming a mom I was able to call out from work if I had a really bad migraine and I could lay down on an ice pack in a dark room & shut out the world. Now I can’t do that because I have a little human who depends on me.

It is such an awful feeling knowing that because you’re suffering from so much pain, you can’t give your whole self to your child or spouse. I know this because I feel this way OFTEN. No one makes me feel bad about it because they know I’m in pain, but I can be really hard on myself. Being a migraine sufferer takes a toll on me, but it also greatly effects my family.

I’m super grateful to both my parents & in-laws who thankfully live so close to us & can help out with Mackenzie & Nala when I need it.

When I was pregnant with Mackenzie I suffered from daily migraines until I was 21 weeks pregnant. THAT’S 21 WEEKS OF DAILY MIGRAINES (let that sink in). And because I was pregnant there was only so much my neurologist could do for me. Thankfully at 21 weeks I was pretty much headache free until I gave birth to Mackenzie at 37 weeks.

So many times I heard, from multiple people, that my headaches may go away when I get pregnant. I got my hopes up that this would be me, but unfortunately I was not that lucky. If anything I suffered more those first 21 weeks than I had most of my life.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to pick and choose when to take my triptan so I could enjoy something like a dinner, a party, or a day of skiing. I’ve also had to take a triptan just to get through an ordinary day of being a mom. I want to enjoy special moments & events without worrying if I’ll get a headache.

My whole point of this post is not for you to feel bad for me, but for anyone else out there suffering from chronic headaches or pain to know you’re not alone. I don’t want to say it will get better because I don’t know that. But sometimes it helps to know you’re not the only one suffering from debilitating headaches that really do affect your every day life.